Always keep your spine stretched upward when riding. When you slump, your head and shoulders will become heavy, and your horse will likely become heavy in your hands.
It can be hard to get a horse truly fit in an arena. You need to use varied terrain and footing to build a strong athlete that will hold up to the rigors of Eventing.
As you are about to come down the centerline of a dressage test, briefly think about something that you know will make you smile. You and your horse will both relax, which will make for a happier performance. The judge will see the difference!
"Only use the spur to correct. The spur is not intended to ride a movement. It cannot just support the gait or the movement. Make a clear correction with the spur. If you are constantly giving your horse an aid, he will get numb to it. " ~ Steffen Peters
It is not wise to add pressure to the situation when the horse is already tense. Use quiet, soothing exercises that the horse is already familiar with, rather than pushing for anything difficult, to help him relax.
When preparing for a jump from a galloping position, one should always sink down into the heel before any touching of seat in the saddle, and only THEN should you touch the horse's mouth if necessary. Taking back on the reins first will almost always cause resistance.
From Facebook fan Amanda Fought Pierce ~ "Your legs should have a neutral position. A place where they do nothing but be there ready to use. Your horse should have gait control in all three gaits where they go without you pushing. When you find neutral, and they find speed control, then you can start to shape the position with your legs in either a driving leg or lateral leg aid. You cannot collect, extend or get lateral work until you have those two qualities. I won't lie, it's tough!"
What you do with your seat when you ask for the canter will effect the quality of the canter transition. If you stiffen your hips and back as you ask for the canter (as many riders do when they ask for the canter too strongly,) the horse’s movement will be stifled. If you allow your hips and lower back to be supple and follow the horse’s motion while you are asking for the canter, the horse can respond with more active hind leg engagement in the transition.
Riders are often incorrectly told to lean back and against the reins when their horses get strong. Not only will this not work, but it will usually make the horse even heavier in their hands.
Longitudinal suppleness (which is what gives them the ability to collect easily) is only possible when the horse is laterally supple. Don’t take a horse that is laterally stiff and ask him to collect! You have to improve his lateral suppleness with judicious use of lateral exercises before he will be able to give you true collection.
"Stretching is important in every schooling session, but don’t let your horse think it is a break from the work. Stretching is not supposed to be associated with quitting." ~ Christine Traurig
The more impulsion you have at any given moment, the more submission you need. And submission is not the same thing as subservience. Submission is the willingness of the horse to follow your instructions. This is why you shouldn't ask for more impulsion when your horse is already against your hand.
"Riding the upper levels becomes less and less about who is the most naturally talented ... It becomes more of who is the best mental competitor. Who can take the competition down mentally, and have the ability to stay focused on the task at hand regardless of what happens, that's what true upper level talent is." ~ Stephanie Shepherd Ezzo
To help your horse make a softer, more balanced canter depart - set him up for it, and then think of allowing him to canter, rather than asking strongly. If you push too strongly, your horse is more likely to push hard with his hind legs into the canter, and begin the transition on the forehand.
Since the various available lateral movements all work to supple the horse's body in a slightly different way, it is a good idea to use bits of all of them in your training. Don't just do your favorites.
Everyone talks about engaging the horse's inside hind leg - but the key to a good quality canter is sufficient engagement of the outside hind leg… as that is how each canter stride begins.
I find that many riders are using bits that are too BIG for their horse’s mouths (too long, from side to side.) While certainly better than a bit that is too small, when a bit is too big there is too much movement of the bit sliding back and forth in the horse’s mouth. Horses want the bit to be still in their mouths, they don’t want it sliding left and right all the time.
You need to decide that, from this day on, your horse will respond to light aids. If you don't expect him to, and don’t consistently give him appropriate feedback, he probably won't ever be as attentive and responsive as you would like him to be.
"One of the good things about our sport is that while getting older might slow your reflexes down, the knowledge you have enables you to continue to improve, and handle the challenges better." ~ Shane Rose
When doing lateral work, every time your horse steps nicely under his body with his inside hind leg, you should feel him stepping up into the connection of your outside rein. Be sure to make good use of that opportunity to soften your inside rein. Every single time.
Whenever you are nervous about something during your ride, make a very clear plan of what you are about to do in your mind. Then put your focus on the execution of that plan to override your nerves.
"I try and have the feeling when I sit on a horse that I sit in the saddle, and my legs aren’t gripping around the horse - they just hang. At the sitting trot everyone wants to stop themselves from bouncing. What you have to do is let yourself go with the flow of the horse." ~ Charlotte Dujardin
"Concentrate on the transitions, forward and back, build the activity from behind. When you bring the horse slightly back, you still have to push her forward to the hand, you can keep riding as long as you can feel the hindlegs in your hand." ~ Susanne Miesner
Horses that tend to rush or hurry often do best when ridden at a slower than ideal pace until they are rhythmical and relaxed, and are no longer trying to hurry.
Whether on or off the horse, the lower your center of gravity is, the easier it is to balance. So what does this mean to your riding? Keeping your balance point low, by keeping your seat close to the saddle when up off of your horse's back, and your weight sinking well down into your heels, will make you more secure.
When working with horses, always be mindful of the feedback you are giving your horse at any given time... whether intentional or accidental. When your horse misbehaves, make sure you don't give him an accidental reward by stopping to regroup (which to him is a rest and a reward.) Keep moving, get the horse to do something (anything) well, and THEN stop to regroup if you must.
Quote from Bert de Nemethy: "When I think of the rider's aids, I am reminded of an anecdote that is told about one of the world's great pianists, who was asked how difficult it was to learn to play the piano as he did. ‘It is really not difficult at all,’ he replied. ‘You only have to figure out which fingers go on what keys, and for how long. Then you practice for the rest of your life so that you can do it up to tempo.’ Communicating with the horse is about the same."
"Unless he is standing still, then from the moment you get on him, the horse is in a rhythm – it can be regular or irregular – but everything in riding has rhythm to it. Rhythm is a very integral part of horsemanship." ~ Tad Coffin
If you want to develop a nicely shaped crest (the top of his neck muscling) on your horse, you have to make sure your horse is truly seeking the connection - reaching into the bit, rather than backing away from it.
"Since the criteria of a correct seat are the same as the criteria of good posture in general, being constantly attentive to one’s bearing when standing or walking is excellent training. A correct vertical posture of the head and the trunk on horseback is not a special posture applicable only to riding." ~ Kurt Albrecht
When trying to find your balance, whether for posting at the trot, jumping a fence, or anything in between - you will always be in one of three positions: Either ahead of the motion (too far forward), behind the motion (too far back), or exactly with the motion (perfect). If you have a strong tendency to be in one of the positions other than perfect… say you are often a bit too far forward, don't be discouraged if you find yourself going the other way (too far back) when trying to break your bad habit and make a change. It is a perfectly normal part of the process of finding your balance. Riders will almost always teeter back and forth over that line…. sometimes a bit too far forward, and sometimes a bit too far back, before they find that perfect middle ground.
"Many people think, what is piaffe, piaffe is something the top riders do in Grand Prix – no, no, no, that is not right. Piaffe is something you use to train your horse, to make the horse more together and more balanced. You can start the piaffe right from the beginning, even with a five year old horse, you can start to do it in the hand on the ground, or also when you are riding, and that helps make the steps of the horse more controllable, and out of that you have a much more beautiful stride forward, and a much more beautiful stride sideways." ~ Rafael Soto
"Every horse is different, but you learn to compare, what to do in this moment with this particular horse, and that takes time. Dressage doesn’t go fast, this is the difference between our young riders and our more experienced riders." ~ Reiner Klimke
"I never really work a horse for longer than four or five minutes [at a time.] I want to take a quick break, and then we go again. Any of you who’ve worked out know how much a break of 30 seconds can help. It gets some oxygen back into the muscles." ~ Steffen Peters
